Milton's "Haemony": Knowledge and Belief

Abstract

IN A RECENT study of Thyrsis' magic herb in Comus, John M. Steadman concludes that means knowledge from the Greek haimon, skillful. This derivation, he acknowledges, does not preclude other etymological interpretations, but he cautions that superimpose additional meanings to court (pp. 205-207). It seems unlikely, however, that the poet himself would not have recognized certain additional meanings (relating to Haemonia or Thessaly, blood or bloodred), and he may have chosen the term precisely because of its enrichening subordinate associations. After all, have the lesson of all past ... research that there no such thing in Milton as a single influence2 and we know that the Ludlow Mask in particular is in the fullest sense Spenserian allegory, with different levels of meaning throughout (Woodhouse, pp. 222-223). Upon this assumption, and at the risk of heaping still another obscurity upon an already overread work,3 I would like to propose that one of the associations with haemony which Milton intended-homonymically, etymologically, and symbolically-pertains to the Hebrew word-root aman. Denoting in its various forms both knowl-